My parents recently celebrated their golden anniversary. All they wanted was a nice dinner with their children and grandchildren. And they emphasized "no presents!" and "we have everything we always wanted, please no presents!".

Well, we really couldn't have a celebration without a present, so we planned a cute gift. I bought a big basket, sprayed it gold and decorated it with gold ribbons. All the kids and grandkids had to buy something with the word "gold" in it, wrap in gold paper, and put in the basket.

There was a bag of Gold Medal flour, a bottle of gold fingernail polish, a Golden Treasury child's book, a bottle of Goldschlager, a pair of gold-toe socks, a postcard of the Golden Gate Bridge, a tube of gold glitter, a little net bag of chocolate gold coins, a book on how to raise goldfish, a bag of Yukon gold potatoes, gold nugget bubble gum...... I can't remember all the crazy things we came up with.

It was hilarious to watch my parents unwrap these odd presents and say things like "thank you, i always wanted a bag of flour". It wasn't until they unwrapped the fifth or sixth item when my mom said "GOLD! everything is gold!

It was a golden anniversary to remember :-).

I love this idea! I quoted the whole thing so that I could find it later.

My parents' 60th anniversary was this past June. My sister and I took our parents on a day trip to Gettysburg. For Mom, who is a collector of small elephants, we stopped at a little place in Pennsylvania called "Mr. Ed's Elephant Shop". For Dad who can only walk short distances, we were given a temporary pass to drive on the path around the New york Monument. Dad is a WWII veteran and his great-grandfather (our German immigrant ancestor) enlisted out of New York to fight in the Civil War. Sister drove, and I treated for lunch.

For my grandparents' 40th, they flew back "home" (retired across the country), my immediate family drove there, and the six other kids and their families already lived there. The local daughters planned a very nice dinner at an elegant, historic mansion with a private room. No one else was invited, I think, but that was still almost 25 people.

For their 45th, the kids chipped in and bought them a computer and taught them to use it. They loved it!

For their 50th, the kids paid for an Alaskan cruise.

All that is to say, expectations, mobility and desires change a lot over the years. Weigh all those factors, as well as what you two can afford (time and money), and plan or don't plan accordingly.

Both sets of my grandparents were married for over 50 years. Both of them threw a nice day time cocktail-style party with a buffet of finger foods and a limited bar in their own homes with about 50 people, including some friends and family from out of town. I don't remember how much my aunts and uncles were involved in planning, but I know my mother wasn't involved (newly widowed and struggling to make ends meet). However, both my grandmothers are or were party planning people, who loved being the consummate Southern hostess.

Another thought occurred to me -- is Aunt's big milestone coming up soon? I wonder if the hint train is actually going in another direction -- maybe OP is supposed to tell her COUSINS to get on something...

Well is she coming up on *a* milestone! birthday, etc? She may be wanting *someone* to plan*something* for her, and since she doesn't have children who could do it, she is looking to you.

Putting her motive aside for now, since you say your family is spread out, it may not be crazy to get some idea from your parents now as to what they might want, in very general terms, e.g., small family dinner, big shindig in a hall, weekend away together ( and it doesn't have to be in December which might make traveling difficult, but you can have it in the summer), etc. Just very general terms now, then one or two years ahead of time you let invitees know the general info so people can start saving up, arranging vacation/holiday time etc